Wednesday 8 September 2010

Review: I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett

"I'm feared for the big wee hag..."

Tiffany Aching is a witch.  And she thinks she's doing a good job for the people of the Chalk.  Even if the job does seem to involve a lot of bandaging legs and cutting old ladies' toenails and not much, well, magic.

Or sleep.

But somewhere - some time - there's a tangled ball of evil and spite, of hatred and malice, that has woken up.  And it's waking up all of the old stories too - stories about evil old witches.

Suddenly Tiffany isn't so sure she's doing the right thing.  And her tiny allies - the fightin' Nac Mac Feegles - are only making things more difficult.

Things are supposed to look better after a good night's sleep.

But they won't.

They're about to get a lot, lot worse.

And a witch has to deal with what is in front of her...

Discworld Series:
The Colour of Magic (Rincewind book 1)
The Light Fantastic (Rincewind book 2)
Equal Rites (Witches book 1)
Mort (Death book 1)
Sourcery (Rincewind book 3)
Wyrd Sisters (Witches book 2)
Pyramids
Guards! Guards! (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 1)
Eric (Rincewind book 4)
Moving Pictures (Industrial Revolution book 1)
Reaper Man (Death book 2)
Witches Abroad (Witches book 3)
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies (Witches book 4)
Men at Arms (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 2)
Soul Music (Death book 3)
Interesting Times (Rincewind book 5)
Maskerade (Witches book 5)
Feet of Clay (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 3)
Hogfather (Death book 4)
Jingo (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 4)
The Last Continent (Rincewind book 6)
Carpe Jugulum (Witches book 6)
The Fifth Elephant (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 5)
The Truth (Industrial Revolution book 2)
Thief of Time (Death book 5)
The Last Hero (Rincewind book 7)
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Night Watch (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 6)
The Wee Free Men (Tiffany Aching book 1)
Monstrous Regiment (Industrial Revolution book 3)
A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching book 2)
Going Postal (Moist von Lipwig book 1) (Industrial Revolution book 4)
Thud! (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 7)
Wintersmith (Tiffany Aching book 3)
Making Money (Moist von Lipwig book 2) (Industrial Revolution book 5)
Unseen Academicals (Rincewind book 8)
I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching book 4)
Snuff (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 8)
The World of Poo
Raising Steam (Moist von Lipwig book 3) (Industrial Revolution book 6)
The Shepherd's Crown (Tiffany Aching book 5)

Discworld Related books:
The Discworld Mapp - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book - Paul Kidby
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium - Paul Kidby

Visit Terry Pratchett's website for more information

Review:
Tiffany is now 16 years old and has finished her witch training, she has been given her own steading and has been the official witch for The Chalk for a year now. As we have already learnt from the previous books in the series this involves a lot of hard work and a lot less magic than you might expect. It isn't easy going back to the area where everyone knew her as a child and being the one everyone comes to with their problems but Tiffany is more than capable of taking up the challenge. But something strange is happening, people she has known all her life are starting to look at her differently and instead of giving her respect they are becoming suspicious and scared of her. Something out there is spreading malice wherever it goes and, as the general public are becoming more and more anti-witches, it is up to Tiffany to stop it - before the witch hunts begin again.

I Shall Wear Midnight is the 38th Discworld book and the 4th & final book in the Tiffany Aching series. You don't have to have read all of the Discworld stories to enjoy this one but I would definitely recommend reading the whole Tiffany series in order (starting with The Wee Free Men). The series is a great stepping stone to introduce young adults to the Discworld series but I'd also recommend it to adults who are already fans of the series.

If you've read any of my other reviews for the books in this series you'll already know that I love Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegles so I couldn't wait to read this book. I Shall Wear Midnight didn't disappoint and although it is by far the darkest book in the series it still contained the humour and witty real life insights that you can expect in any of Terry Pratchett's books. The themes covered in the story include child abuse, miscarriage, hatred and prejudice but it is also an inspiring story as we watch Tiffany become an adult. We have seen her character grow a lot throughout the series, she has always been intelligent and caring but we now see even more the potential she has to become one of the Discworld's greatest witches.

We see quite a lot of the older witches in this one - old favorites like Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg but also some new but powerful characters we hadn't come across in this series before. I loved the fact that we get to visit Ankh Morpork with Tiffany and catch up with some of the city watch (Including Carrot, Angua & Vimes). I found it interesting seeing Tiffany out of her element in the big city and the Nac Mac Feegles manage to cause chaos while they're there as you might expect if you've ever met them before. I still love the humour provided in the form of the Feegles and it was great to see Wee Mad Arthur again.

If you're a fan of the previous Tiffany books then I'm sure you'll enjoy this last instalment. If you haven't started reading them yet but are a fan of humorous fantasy then what are you waiting for? Get your hands on a copy of The Wee Free Men asap!

Source: Thanks to RHCB for giving me an ARC of this book, I also have a signed hardback from the signing I attended.

Other Reviews:
Nayu's Reading Corner
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

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